Posted on 10/05/2023 6:30:02 PM PDT by marcusmaximus
It was a moment of humiliation for Moscow. The headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea fleet – a building of elegant white columns overlooking the Crimean port of Sevastopol – was ablaze. Smoke billowed into a blue sky. First one, and then a second Storm Shadow missile slammed into its roof. Video captured the impact: a precise, deadly, thunderous strike.
The attack on 22 September killed 34 officers, including Viktor Sokolov, the fleet’s commander, according to Ukraine. Russia denied this, releasing footage of Sokolov, suggesting he was still alive. Whatever the truth of the admiral’s fate, the blow deep into enemy territory was of major significance. It was further proof that Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion, 19 months on, had not gone to plan.
On land, Kyiv’s counteroffensive has made slow progress. Ukrainian troops have run into formidable Russian obstacles. But on water, it is a success story. Largely unnoticed, Ukraine has reclaimed the Black Sea at least in part, by turning it into a no-go zone for Russia’s bristling warships – no mean feat given that Ukraine has no navy to speak of, and a handful of old jets.
In Sevastopol, a naval exodus has occurred. Two frigates and three attack submarines have left port and moved east to the safer Russian harbour of Novorossiysk, according to satellite data. Five large landing ships, a patrol boat, and small missile vessels have joined them there. A cluster of other boats have sailed from Sevastopol to Feodosia, a port on Crimea’s eastern side.
Driven from Sevastopol, Russia has reportedly signed a deal for a new naval base. It will be located in the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia, further along the Black Sea coast. On Thursday the region’s leader, Aslan Bzhania, said the permanent facility would be built in the “near future”.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
Communist propaganda.
Uke propaganda, to support the new Fall Fundraiser
On director’s cue, Black Sea narratives coming in hot and heavy now. Like the Bakhmut encirclement and the great breakthrough of the Surovikin line, we’ll hear nothing more about it in two weeks.
A big bowl of Hopium™️ for the warmongers as Ukraine bleeds out.
*pssst… land wars aren’t won at sea*
That Communist bilge from the Guardian is allowed on FR should earn an instant ZOT for the trolls posting it.
Putin is a coward for fleeing Sevastopol.
The Black Sea is about as relevant to the war in Ukraine as the Gulf of Thailand was to winning the Vietnam War, I.E., not at all.
Putin’s fanny-boys extremely upset
LOL
Putin’s Black Sea fleet was a feint.
I should think that instructors at Annapolis are watching this event with a certain amount of trepidation. Sea going vessels are targets, easy to follow, easy to attack. Subs, not so much. There has to be much re-thinking in how to protect a fleet. If one can actually utilize a fleet effectively.
It seems more and more likely that twenty years from now most war will be fought by robots and surface ships will be obsolete.
I don’t see anyone upset.
It’s another zeeper yawn
Not specific to him. The former Soviet, now Russian Black Sea fleet was just there to keep NATO honest; the Slava class cruisers would not really have been a terribly viable warship class anywhere else, for example. It was a fleet designed to do one thing - have a HUGE alpha strike capability to sink a NATO task force trying to thread their way in through the Bosphorus Strait, and then deal with the occasional intrepid scouting craft. The strait is less than half a mile wide at some points and it’s a fatal funnel for major surface combatants and transports.
The Black Sea Fleet, no matter who runs it, has never been considered to be a major aggressive force and because of the local geography it was always going to be a side show in any war. Any serious invasion was going to be via land anyway; so the Russians never really bulked up the force - nor was there ever a good reason to.
The Black Sea is kind of a special case, though. Naval wars in the Black Sea are not unlike the naval combat on the Great Lakes during the War of 1812 - not terribly conclusive and not terribly relevant to the rest of the war.
🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡
How does it feel to have a new House Speaker who’s gonna pull the plug on Ukraine?
🤣🤣🤣
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